- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: W&N (24 Jan 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297853309
- ISBN-13: 978-0297853305
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 201,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'wonderfully compelling... these chapters also read as a mixture of fiction and scholarship' (Bryan Cheyette THE INDEPENDENT )
"ardent for the joyfulness of learning.. fierce for the personal significance of knowledge" (THES )
"Anyone familiar with the erudite George Steiner will know that anything he writes on literature, philosophy or culture is worth reading" (Jonathan Gibbs METRO )
"his failures, as he plummets from this dizzy height, are more grandly vertiginous than the modest successes of others" (Peter Conrad OBSERVER )
"the ability to acknowledge and describe greatness in others is one of Steiner's most attractive gifts" (Peter Washington LITERARY REVIEW )
"For those of us who can remember exactly where we were when we first read his greatest work, it is an extraordinary moment, a sense of an ending." (David Herman JEWISH CHRONICLE )
"fascinating" (Mark Bostridge INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
"The fact that they have not been written is an unimportant oversight, a pardonable excess of modesty in such a joyful enterprise" (Alberto Manguel The Spectator )
"This is all richly argued, meditative and yields intellectual nourishment and prompts admiration." (Robert Giddings Tribune )
"scintillating, seductive" (David Martin TLS )
"ardent for the joyfulness of learning.. fierce for the personal significance of knowledge" (THES )
"Anyone familiar with the erudite George Steiner will know that anything he writes on literature, philosophy or culture is worth reading" (Jonathan Gibbs METRO )
"his failures, as he plummets from this dizzy height, are more grandly vertiginous than the modest successes of others" (Peter Conrad OBSERVER )
"the ability to acknowledge and describe greatness in others is one of Steiner's most attractive gifts" (Peter Washington LITERARY REVIEW )
"For those of us who can remember exactly where we were when we first read his greatest work, it is an extraordinary moment, a sense of an ending." (David Herman JEWISH CHRONICLE )
"fascinating" (Mark Bostridge INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
"The fact that they have not been written is an unimportant oversight, a pardonable excess of modesty in such a joyful enterprise" (Alberto Manguel The Spectator )
"This is all richly argued, meditative and yields intellectual nourishment and prompts admiration." (Robert Giddings Tribune )
"scintillating, seductive" (David Martin TLS )
THES
"ardent for the joyfulness of learning.. fierce for the personal significance of knowledge"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A bold work, akin to Steiner's memoir Errata but paradoxically much more personal than the earlier work. Here, Steiner outlines the books he wanted to write; i can't help but feel these concise and quite shameless chapters are actually the best medium for these ideas, these problematic fragments. My favourites would be the unexpectedly brazen chapter on sexuality & language, and the very honest & warm chapter on animals. As a dober-fan, Steiner's feelings for dogkind move me, and make me smile.
This book probably won't appeal to anyone who doesn't know Steiner's work, but to those with a taste for his thought & prose, it will doubtless be a great pleasure.
This book probably won't appeal to anyone who doesn't know Steiner's work, but to those with a taste for his thought & prose, it will doubtless be a great pleasure.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In reply to Elberry: I don't know Steiner's work, but that didn't stop me reading this one from beginning to end, and heartily enjoying every chapter. Unlike for Elberry the sex and dog chapters were not my favourites, although I enjoyed them. I most appreciated his chapters on living with being second rate, and on the state of education world-wide. Being British, I found the comparisons of British education with that in France and the USA enlightening. He is spot on in deriding the specialisation that is forced upon bright British kids at too young an age. Having been forced down the science path, I really need humanists like Steiner to give me some balance!
Djmottershead is right in suggesting that Steiner packs in much erudition and 'book dropping'. But I did not 'laugh at' Steiner for this, but 'with him'. It's a joyful erudition! And he can also be moving and very informative. Steiner does point out his own abilities and interests. Any why not? Also, I'm not a 'fellow academic' and I felt he was talking to me and any other reasonably well-read person. I can't see how Djmottershead can say he doesn't communicate feelings effectively! Just read the dog chapter! Almost too much feeling there. There's nothing 'pseudo' about this intellectual. He's the real deal, if anyone is.
The review by 'Concerned' is totally misplaced. There is nothing in the book that insults Jamaicans or any other race, and his comments (in the book) are anti-racist. For example: "Racism ... is inadmissible rubbish. Moreover, insist modern biology and genetics, the mere concept of racial purity or impurity is nothing but dangerous nonsense." (p.92)
But the Telegraph article was interesting! In his defence, he doesn't say that all Jamaicans have six children and play loud music. He suggests that *if* a Jamaican family moved next door and *if* it had six children *and* played loud music *then* latent racism might be brought out. Steiner's comment makes it more likely that one will see the latent racism in oneself and (hopefully) try and defuse it. Anyway, a Telegraph article is too short to reveal Steiner's rounded views, probably why he refused to comment further. Read his book to really grasp what Steiner thinks about racism, and to see that he is not at all cranky!
Djmottershead is right in suggesting that Steiner packs in much erudition and 'book dropping'. But I did not 'laugh at' Steiner for this, but 'with him'. It's a joyful erudition! And he can also be moving and very informative. Steiner does point out his own abilities and interests. Any why not? Also, I'm not a 'fellow academic' and I felt he was talking to me and any other reasonably well-read person. I can't see how Djmottershead can say he doesn't communicate feelings effectively! Just read the dog chapter! Almost too much feeling there. There's nothing 'pseudo' about this intellectual. He's the real deal, if anyone is.
The review by 'Concerned' is totally misplaced. There is nothing in the book that insults Jamaicans or any other race, and his comments (in the book) are anti-racist. For example: "Racism ... is inadmissible rubbish. Moreover, insist modern biology and genetics, the mere concept of racial purity or impurity is nothing but dangerous nonsense." (p.92)
But the Telegraph article was interesting! In his defence, he doesn't say that all Jamaicans have six children and play loud music. He suggests that *if* a Jamaican family moved next door and *if* it had six children *and* played loud music *then* latent racism might be brought out. Steiner's comment makes it more likely that one will see the latent racism in oneself and (hopefully) try and defuse it. Anyway, a Telegraph article is too short to reveal Steiner's rounded views, probably why he refused to comment further. Read his book to really grasp what Steiner thinks about racism, and to see that he is not at all cranky!
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I laughed at loud at the beginning. Steiner packs so much erudition and 'book' dropping into each line that the effect is humourous. Then, when you least expect it, he can be moving and very informative. Steiner seems to be making a point about his own abilities and interests but his target audience seems too often to be himself and his coterie of fellow academics. I longed at time for him to communicate feelings and ideas effectively. However, too often he puts the 'pseudo' into the pseudo-intellectual.
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